[New Olympus] Wilds

[Apollymi]

Having already passed the lake for the day, and finding no one there when she did, Deianira instead made her way towards her cabin. This had been several hours before the arrival of the demigod Athos' whose name she still didn't know. She wondered what kind of adventure his trip would have led him on, and wished he was a tiny bit more friendly so she could be entertained by any possible stories he had. While she thought this over, she fell asleep in her hammock in her usual way, waiting for the stars to come out so she could go on her next hunt, as she tended to do when she wasn't partying the night before.

After sleeping she rose, got dressed and headed out again for a night hunt, instead of the party she likely would have thrown normally. As she headed down stream she began walking towards the lake she'd already come by here once today, but... she couldn't help but take a second look today, if only to check on the safety of the lad who presently called it home. She went on to receive visual confirmation of his presence there in the moonlight, and after doing so, simply began to walk away, lest she disturb him in someway. 'Good he's okay~' she thought rather happily.

[Bloodedge]

After a long, slow trek home, Athos finally made it to the lake in which he slept. Upon reaching the large rock at the water's edge, he saw the serpent Invi fast asleep beside it. Athos turned around and dropped himself to the ground, letting his back hit the rock as the muscles of his body lost all tension. Invi stirred, but made no major movements at the moment of the demigod's obvious return. "It didn't work," Athos hissed while pulling his knees into his chest and lowering his chin into the space between his knees. "I guess we're stuck. This really is our home now."

[Apollymi]

Deianira's momentary happiness was brought to a screeching halt. The step she was about to take forward from the lake was stopped mid stride by the hissed words of the boy to his pet snake. Apparently whatever method he'd tried undertaking didn't work and he was now stuck here. And though Deianira didn't wish to pry nor did she want to interfere in whatever this young demigod had going on. 'You shouldn't stop and you know it, keep moving already...' the girl said inside her own head to herself. She was trying to take the next step, but the pang in her chest simply wouldn't allow her to move past a fellow demigod in need. 'Damn it...' she swore in her own head. "You aren't stuck anywhere. I can probably help you out, if you tell me what happened..." the young woman said as she paused on the side of the lake. She'd only come out to do her hunting, she'd only stopped by here, as a reflex to check on the young man who presently called this place his home, if he didn't want to be here, it was the least she could do, to help him get where he wanted to be.

[Bloodedge]

Invi seemed distraught by the information provided by her "brother" as she claimed. Athos, as well, had no idea where to go from here. He had no desire to be part of New Olympus, and had only accepted being brought to this place because there was nowhere left in the mortal realm for him to call home. In the midst of his apparent sulking, the huntress from days prior made herself known by speaking to the lad directly. Immediately, he fell silent once more. This lasted for several seconds before human words left his mouth again. "... Hephaestus. I went to Hephaestus."

[Apollymi]

"Ah... take it he wasn't in the mood to make weapons?" she said moving a tiny bit closer so she was no longer standing across the lake from the lad but instead near the rock on which his 'sister' snake enjoyed basking. She thought about it for several seconds, knowing that the Smith God was a bit of an outcast, and this one didn't seem to have much by way of social skills, she imagined their encounter probably hadn't gotten very far. "Seeing Hephaestus is the option you want to go with? Well, what reason did you give for wanting the weapon?" she asked genuinely interested in helping the lad achieve his goals, without any knowledge of what it was he was trying to do. She'd heard from a few of the other kids around here that the Smith God didn't need that much reason to act, he'd given them errands to run and then made their weapons based on simple ideas like valor or fortune-seeking. Surely then the problem between this lad and Hephaestus was something else.

[Bloodedge]

"He was making something when I got there," Athos replied. At this point, his voice was getting more use than it had in several months, yet there was still more to be said. Whatever the reason for Deianira's questioning, Athos was in no mood to be reclusive about the answers. Of course, this did nothing to ward off his lack of ability to explain himself properly, but that was another matter entirely. "It didn't get that far. He just wouldn't do it," was his response. With that, the white-haired lad turned his head away from the daughter of Dionysus; not that he'd been looking her way in the first place. His gaze was now fixed to the ground, where moss stemming from his favored stone lay scattered.

[Apollymi]

At the information that the Smith God had been working on a project when the boy arrived but he still wouldn't make it for him, Deianira's brows furrowed. It was almost unheard of for a demigod not to at least get an errand to go on, even when Hephaestus was in a bad mood, the task just became more difficult. If they hadn't even gotten that far, it was more of a problem than she realized. As such Deianira walked a bit closer to Athos and took a seat not facing him and further away from the water than she had been originally. "So, you didn't even get to the impossible quest part, just nothing..." that seemed to make the girl perplexed. "What exact words did you say to Hephaestus?" she asked. This was becoming a bit like detective work, where she was having to piece together the young man's activities to figure out what had gotten him on the bad side of the Smith God, so that she could try and help him get back on his good side. For all the good it would do her.

[Bloodedge]

And so, the girl drew even closer. Athos' periphery alerted him to her movements, but also let him know she was not facing him after relocating herself. He hazarded a momentary glance in her direction while wondering why she bothered questioning these things, only to turn his head away a second later. Another question followed. Frankly, Athos was at least partly at fault for his lack of progress with Hephaestus, but he did not understand this. At this particular moment, he only had the thought that he'd been turned away without good reason. When Deianira asked what his exact words to the god were, he said nothing; he only shriveled up again, as he had done previously.

[Apollymi]

After her question, it seemed the young man was remiss to speak. Perhaps he realized that whatever he'd said probably wasn't the best thing to say to the Smith God. Or perhaps he didn't like her present proximity to him. Either way, he just further shriveled up seeming to fall into himself. Deianira hazarded a quick glance in his direction and allowed her chin to rest on the open palm of her left hand as she gave a small smile. "That bad, huh?" she said not even bothering to try and pry out of the boy his exact words a second time. "Look, I'm not judging or anything. We all mess up from time to time," she said as she stared off into the night. Her own eyes were darting around and held a peculiar glow which indicated the use of her ability to see in the night. "If it really means that much to you, you'll have to try again~" she said rather simply. The young woman was the sort who understood that given the kinds of beings they were, you couldn't give up and sulk at the first of any folly. "After all, it isn't about the mistakes you make, it's about what you do to fix them~" she said, offering the lad a small piece of advice which had gotten her through a tough time once.

[Bloodedge]

Athos gave consideration to the words spoken to him, and had to think of the possibility that he could have better handle the situation with Hephaestus. He could benefit greatly from one of the god's weapons, and such a boon could not be allowed to slip through his fingers due to his own social incompetence during a first meeting. "I... I guess..." he stuttered, trying to find the proper words to portray his intentions. Such was always quite the struggle for Athos, having conversed with so few humans over the course of his lifetime, but he could at least produce something after a bit of thought. "I guess I could try again. I'm not good with words, though..."

[Apollymi]

The young lad came out with a two word sentence initially and a bit of a stammer. Overall, Deianira found this to be cute, as he was still being himself, but there was the slightest lift in the boy's spirits as he finally came out with a statement which the young child of Dionysus could get behind. A bit of a grin came to her face as she gave the boy a gentle and friendly nudge. "Atta boy," she said seeming to find the shift in his attitude to be one which was way more tolerable than the silent version of him who didn't want to say anything or do anything when it came to other people. "Tell you what, when you go back to see Hephaestus again, I'll go with you. After all, I'm pretty good with words and your trip should at least get you something. Well, only if you want I suppose~" she said this was a rather open offer made to the other demigod and to be honest Deianira wasn't exactly sure the lad would accept her help. Either way, she felt it was necessary to offer it, since the boy seemed to have a lot more problems speaking to people than most others.

[Bloodedge]

Apparently, this girl thought it would be a good idea to travel with Athos on his second journey to Lemnos. Although he'd rather have avoided the entire situation, he thought that a better speaker being on hand would perhaps be a great deal easier than going alone. This did not stop him being hesitant about having company. Of course, he could not argue the benefits, so even against his instincts, he had to agree. "... We need to keep distance. And... we need a boat. I can handle the trip with those things," he said while shifting away, seeming to have some distaste for the nudging from Deianira.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that the young man would at least agree to have her along for his little adventure which was probably for the best considering, his earlier folly. Beyond this, his stipulations for such a thing were rather odd, and as he moved away from her she realized that he was beyond simply being antisocial but he was also starved for normal social contact, and unable to accept it when it was given. 'Really? One step forward.... two backwards... I might have to chat with the gods, find out what I did to deserve this kind of punishment~' she thought to herself. Even so, she'd observed enough of this boy's behavior to leave him be. "Fine fine, whatever you want. I can get a boat, I got a friend who owes me a favor," she said as she stood stretching. "But why do we need to keep distance?" she questioned this alone, she was willing to let him have his privacy but it seemed kind of odd for someone about to undertake a long journey with another person to not want to be near them. And while it was rather refreshing a concept for someone like Deianira, but in this case it just seemed like another wall or barrier to overcome.

[Bloodedge]

"Because," he began while shifting further away and rising from his seat on the ground simultaneously. "I... can't be around people. Just stay away; don't even look at me," he concluded. He had already agreed to the assistance, but in no way was he alright with the idea of being in close quarters with someone else. Moving along, he prepped his satchel once more, leaving Invi in her tired state to guard their shared home while he returned to Hephaestus. His idea in using this boat was to force it into rapid speeds toward Lemnos via water manipulation. Doing so would have them traveling across the water at speeds greater than any motorized boats or cars.

[Apollymi]

Deianira opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. She could somewhat understand the problem with interacting with people if you had a passive ability which seemed to affect them, but this young man by her own approximation possessed no such ability. But it seemed he was quite set about this, given his lack of social skills and what was likely a very closed off set of life experiences, she figured when he said boat he meant something like a row boat. "Alright, that definitely didn't actually answer my question, but I won't pry. I'm going down to the docks at the bottom. Meet me there when you're ready~" she said. Taking off at a run into the woods.

And sure enough within a few moments she was at the very bottom of the wilds having traversed a large section of the area at lightning speeds before coming to a small boat house and knocking on the door. This one in particular was built for a certain half-mer person and was built to allow him to swim with his dolphin tail throughout the whole of it. She arrived and knocked on the top window hearing the sounds of water moving soon enough the door opened and a bow with fluffy blonde hair looked out at her. "Deianira! You're back, I didn't think you'd ever stop by..." said the young an who was obviously way happier to see her than the boy whose company she'd just left. "Yeah, sorry about that Dolph, been a bit busy lately. You remember you said you'd do a favor for me after I helped you out that one time?" she said the boy looked at her bright blue eyes shining. "Yeah, anything you need. I expect a boat is on the list, you can have the yacht even!~" he said pointing with his upper half at the large cruise ship style boat. Deianira looked at it and grinned. "If I was throwing a party right now... I'd totally take it. But I'm doing a bit of an adventure... small boat, sturdy enough to survive some speed probably would do just fine. Oh and two solo cups~" she said the young man looked a bit disappointed but pointed to a smaller more moderate boat to fit the girl's specification, and pulled from under the counter a stack of two red and white plastic cups and had another in his other hand. "Thanks Dolph, you're the best!~" she said the young man smiled a blush creeping up his neck, she touched the cup he had alone and allowed it to fill with a mixture of liquor which she knew him to favor, and took the other two for herself and potentially for her companion. "Aww, you're just saying that... Thanks for this but are you sure you don't want the yacht?" he asked the girl looked at it again and grinned. "Maybe some other time~" she said as she waited by the aforementioned boat for the arrival of her new friend.